China exempts US soy, pork products from tariffs

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Last Updated: Fri, Sep 13, 2019 16:54 hrs

The decision comes two days after China on Wednesday announced that it would postpone the application of tariffs on 16 US products until September 2020, instead of the previously announced deadline of September 17, reports Efe news.

The items covered by the postponement of the 25 per cent tariffs included fishmeal, some lubricants and raw materials used in cancer drugs, but did not cover prominent imports such as pork, soy or automobiles.

However, on Friday Beijing included two of these products on the list of exemptions, another step in a recent series of goodwill gestures as the two countries look set to renew attempts to reach a trade agreement.

The agricultural sector has been one of the main points of contention between the two sides as one of the key demands of Washington has been that China should buy more of its farm products in order to balance the US trade deficit with Beijing.

Hours after Beijing's Wednesday announcement, US President Donald Trump said he would delay the imposition of 25-30 per cent tariffs on Chinese products worth 250 billion dollars from October 1 to October 15 due to the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China on October 1 and on the request of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

On Thursday night, Liu announced that working groups from China and the US will meet next week to resume trade talks.

Liu made the remarks at a meeting with chairman of the US-China Business Council, Evan Greenberg, according to Xinhua news agency.

Liu said that the working groups would have "earnest discussions" on their trade balance, market access, protection of investors and other matters of mutual interest and added that the world was looking forward to seeing progress in trade talks between both nations.

Greenberg said that the US' business sector did not wish to see a hike in tariffs, and hoped that the two countries would resolve their differences through discussions while bringing bilateral trade back to normal.

At next week's meeting, the delegations will begin preparing for the meeting convened in Washington in early October to resolve the trade war, which started in early 2018.